“This action arises out of one of the most brazen frauds ever perpetrated in a domestic real estate context,” her family’s lawyer wrote in a lawsuit.
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Remember the Florida woman who went missing in Spain? New info emerges
The last known act of Ana Knezevich’s life was to finalize the sale of a house in Oakland Park.
Within hours of signing the deal, the 40-year-old Fort Lauderdale woman disappeared from her apartment in Madrid, murdered by her husband, David, according to federal officials. Now, a civil complaint filed May 1 by her brother on behalf of her estate ties her 2024 murder to an elaborate real estate fraud allegedly orchestrated by her estranged husband.
For over a year, the complaint argues, David Knezevich and over a dozen other defendants, including a Boca Raton real estate lawyer and a Fort Lauderdale closing agent company, worked to systematically drain Ana Knezevich of her equity in 10 properties the couple owned throughout the Fort Lauderdale area. Millions of dollars that should have gone to Ana Knezevich and her family instead went to her husband, funding his criminal defense team after he was charged with kidnapping and murdering her, according to the complaint. Her estate still has not received any of that money.
“This action arises out of one of the most brazen frauds ever perpetrated in a domestic real estate context,” David Di Pietro, the attorney representing Ana Knezevich’s family, wrote in the complaint. “An attorney-facilitated, coordinated scheme by Ana Maria Knezevich’s husband, David Knezevich, and her own attorney, Defendant Brooke Nicole Estren, to strip the marital estate of nearly $6 million of equity through ten fraudulent real estate transactions, followed by David Knezevich’s kidnapping and murder of Ana Maria Knezevich to prevent her discovery of the scheme.”
The day Ana Knezevich disappeared, David had arrived at her apartment in Madrid, spray-painted the surveillance cameras and left with a suitcase, according to authorites. He was charged with murder, though her body — believed to be somewhere between Spain and Serbia — has never been found. Knezevich died by suicide suicide in federal prison last year, abruptly ending the criminal case.
The original civil complaint was filed in January of last year by Ana Knezevich’s brother, Felipe Henao, on behalf of her estate, followed by three other amended complaints that are not publicly available. The recent amended complaint, which is public, names 16 defendants, including David Knezevich’s own criminal defense attorneys’ firms.
Altogether, the defendants now include:
- Brooke Estren, a Boca Raton real estate lawyer, and her law firm Estren & Associates.
- AIM Partners, a limited-liability company, its manager Ivan Miatselitsa and his wife, Anastasiya Miatselitsa.
- Elite Title, a Fort Lauderdale closing agent company, and its manager, Yadiel Huet.
- Vera Capital, an LLC run by Huet’s aunt, Yaremis Vera, listed as a buyer.
- Real Title Insurance Agency, another Florida closing agent company.
- YHR Enterprises, another buyer.
- Peace of Mind Property Solutions, a California company, and its manager, Aaron Weitzman.
- The David Knezevich Legal Retainer Trust, a trust established by David Knezevich to pay his criminal defense attorneys.
- Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough and Sale Weintraub, two law firms that provided criminal defense to Knezevich.
The lawsuit argues that Estren, the Boca Raton real estate lawyer, claimed to represent Ana Knezevich but was secretly working for David Knezevich.
The buyers — AIM Partners, Vera Capital and YHR Enterprises — were limited-liability companies affiliated with David, according to the complaint. In most of the deals, the buyer would take out a real mortgage to pay for the property, as well as a second mortgage, issued by David Knezevich himself, which appeared to cover the remaining cost of the property as part of a seller-financing arrangement.
Following each sale, the closing agents would secretly divert the proceeds from the real mortgage to David Knezevich or others affiliated with the fraud, the complaint says, while Ana Knezevich received nothing. The second mortgage, meanwhile, “existed solely to paper over the fact that DK had in fact already received most of the equity in cash,” the complaint said. The fraud ultimately stripped Ana Knezevich of her rightful share of approximately $6 million in equity, according to the complaint.
Just after 10:30 a.m. Feb. 2, 2024, Ana Knezevich signed the ninth deal, for a $900,000 home on 1531 NE 35th St. in Oakland Park. The deed identified her as the sole owner of the home, according to the complaint, compared to others that identified David Knezevich or the two jointly. She never received the money.
Hours later, David Knezevich arrived at her apartment in Spain, kidnapped and murdered her, according to federal prosecutors.
David Knezevich was arrested the following month on federal kidnapping charges and later charged with murder.
He then began using the money he had obtained from the real estate sales to pay for his criminal defense, according to the complaint. While awaiting his trial in federal prison and with the help of his criminal defense attorneys, Jayne Weintraub and Christopher Cavallo, he established a trust using the money obtained from the alleged fraud that designated the attorneys as the sole recipients.
